International Baccalaureate

The Inter­na­tional Bac­ca­laur­eate aims to develop inquir­ing, know­ledge­able and caring young people who help to create a better and more peace­ful world through inter­cul­tural under­stand­ing and respect. To this end the organ­iz­a­tion works with schools, gov­ern­ments and inter­na­tional organ­iz­a­tions to develop chal­len­ging pro­grammes of inter­na­tional edu­ca­tion and rig­or­ous assess­ment. These pro­grammes encour­age stu­dents across the world to become active, com­pas­sion­ate and lifelong learners who under­stand that other people, with their dif­fer­ences, can also be right.

The Inter­na­tional Bac­ca­laur­eate Dip­loma is an inter­na­tion­ally recog­nised school-leav­ing cer­ti­fic­ate. An aca­dem­ic­ally rig­or­ous pro­gramme (IBDP) taught in the last two years of sec­ond­ary school provides the neces­sary pre­par­a­tion for final assess­ments.

develop the abil­ity to com­mu­nic­ate with and under­stand people from other coun­tries and cul­tures.

Pupils receive teach­ing over the two-year period in six sub­jects of their choice; exam­in­a­tion is in writ­ten form in May of the final year. The six sub­jects must include a Sci­ence sub­ject, Maths, the study of lit­er­at­ure in the mother tongue and a for­eign lan­guage. Through the indi­vidual choice of three sub­jects at higher level and three at stand­ard level, the Pro­gramme is ​„tailor-made“ for each pupil and can have, for instance, a strong sci­ence focus with 8 hours a week spent in the lab. Altern­at­ively, a pupil may choose to follow three lan­guage courses and become a spe­cial­ist in lit­er­ary ana­lysis. A course in the Theory of Know­ledge, an Exten­ded essay and enga­ging in cre­at­ive, active and ser­vice-ori­ented pro­jects form the com­puls­ory core or ​“heart” of the IB exper­i­ence. For detailed inform­a­tion and a list of all IB sub­jects cur­rently offered at KIS, please see this page.

The IB Dip­loma Pro­gramme is taught exclus­ively in Eng­lish, lead­ing to a level of lan­guage pro­fi­ciency that is highly valued in the increas­ingly inter­na­tion­al­ised pro­fes­sional world. The IB Dip­loma is a glob­ally recog­nized qual­i­fic­a­tion and sig­nals one of the highest stand­ards of aca­demic achieve­ment.

The IB Dip­loma Pro­gramme at our school does entail some extra teach­ing in com­par­ison to a reg­u­lar Aus­trian Gym­nas­ium cur­riculum. The amount of extra teach­ing depends very much on which six IB sub­jects are chosen and as a con­sequence, varies between one extra hour and thir­teen addi­tional hours over the course of the two year pro­gramme. This chart shows the sub­jects in which addi­tional teach­ing hours are needed to fulfil the teach­ing require­ments of the Inter­na­tional Bac­ca­laur­eate Organ­isa­tion. It is pos­sible to choose a com­bin­a­tion of six sub­jects that require very little or no extra after­noon teach­ing includ­ing for instance e.g. German A, Eng­lish B and French B. How­ever, some IB sub­jects e.g. Film are not part of the Aus­trian national cur­riculum and there­fore must be taught entirely in the after­noon. Follow this link to see sample timetables of pupils in IBDP Year 1 (7. Klasse) and IBDP Year 2 (8. Klasse).

Admis­sion to Aus­trian uni­ver­sit­ies with the IB Dip­loma

The IB Dip­loma is accep­ted as a uni­ver­sity entrance qual­i­fic­a­tion at Aus­trian uni­ver­sit­ies. Below is a short list of links to inform­a­tion regard­ing admis­sion to Aus­trian uni­ver­sit­ies with an IB Dip­loma.